Nancy Pelosi re-elected minority leader

House Democrats re-elected Nancy Pelosi as their leader Thursday, this time unanimously. Now in the leadership for a decade, Pelosi is one of the longest serving party leaders ever, and of course was the first female Speaker and first female minority leader. In her last leadership election, after the massive 63-seat loss of the Democratic majority in 2010, the largest for a midterm since 1938, she lost 19 votes among conservative Democrats. She took note of each one.

This time, after winning a plurality of the national House vote, and gaining 8 seats despite failing to net the 25 needed to retake the gavel, she had no opposition. Democrats now have 201 House seats.

Pelosi was nominated by fellow northern California Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, who according to sources called Pelosi a “triple threat” who “knows politics and policy better than anyone and raises more money than anyone.”

According to the source: The nomination was seconded by freshman Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio who lauded the new minority-majority makeup of the caucus, and by Rep. Nydia Velazquez, NY, who praised Pelosi’s ability to forge consensus and unite the caucus. That has in fact been one of her biggest strengths, the more apparent when compared to Speaker John Boehner’s difficulties uniting Republicans, now in the majority.

Pelosi told members about her call with Obama on election night. “Nancy, with my re-election, we have protected all of the accomplishments we achieved together,” Pelosi said. Obama specifically listed the health care law, the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul and higher education reform.Pelosi said Obama wants to work now on “political reform,” presumably campaign finance laws.

The rest of the leadership stays mostly in place, with Steny Hoyer, (MD) at number two, James Clyburn (SC) as whip, and Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles moving up to Democratic caucus chair. Rep. Barbara Lee, Oakland, withdrew her bid for vice chair, ceded the seat to Joseph Crowley, NY.